Tie rods are used to secure cabin interior monuments within an aircraft. There are a number of monuments that are secured within the cabin of the aircraft such as closets, bar units, lowered ceilings, partitions, seat ottomans and the like. Some monuments are affixed to the floor within the cabin and then also affixed to the structure of the aircraft with tie rods. With the flexibility of a fuselage, the fuselage of an in-flight aircraft will experience structural egging and crowning movements. These movements of the fuselage are transmitted as tensile and compression forces through the tie rods to the monument the tie rods secure.
The tensile and compression forces that are received by the monument from the tie rod, during in-flight operations, will cause structural issues such as stress to joints and racking which can also result in functional issues for the monument. For example, tie rods securing a closet within the cabin, will transmit these tensile and compression forces to the closet and create stressed joints and move portions of the closet structure out of alignment. With the closet structure out of alignment, the doors to the closet will bind and will inhibit or prevent the doors from being opened. Thus, there is a need to prevent unwanted loadings onto monuments during in-flight operation of the aircraft.
Even though there is a need to prevent these unwanted operational tensile and compression forces from being transferred to the monuments, there is also a need to provide a rigid secured connection of the monument to the aircraft structure during a severe loading event experienced by the aircraft.